I cannot tell you how happy I am to write this letter – as of this writing, my son is quite a different young man than the one you met last September. I want you to know that I believe a good portion of this is due to his experience with your CogMed program, RoboMemo.
My son has struggled for years with his inability to access that part of his brain responsible for his working memory. He was, unfortunately, unable to control his behavior long enough to focus on whatever it was that was required at ANY particular time. Thus, we saw this begin to interfere with school, then with sports, and finally, with his behavior in general. While I am deeply indebted to the schools system for their intervention on behalf of my son, I believe strongly that his improved demeanor is also related to the confidence he gained in working with RoboMemo.
My son amazed both his father and me, as well as himself, in his improved ability to focus, to order and to organize information based on the exercises he was performing using RoboMemo. I think my son is really surprised himself in being able to tackle these exercises, as well as observing a definite improvement with time in most every exercise with which he was faced. During this period of time, his grades at school got better, and his confidence grew with each passing day.
Thank you again for offering this unique and very special program to us. I believe my son could be a “poster child” for your program, and I want to thank you for this! I would be more than happy to speak with any parent who is considering this program, as I have witnessed firsthand the improvements it has helped my son to achieve.
Parent of a 13-year boy
“Before I did the training I had a hard time remembering what the teacher said in class. I got ok grades but I had to work way harder than everybody else. Now when I listen in class I just get it. I don’t have to go home and try and remember, I just do. My grades are better now then ever. I almost have straight A’s. The other thing that I noticed is that when I read something I understand the first time. (except for the one book that we’re reading in English right now but nobody likes that one) I also don’t need my parents help with homework so much anymore. I don’t get frustrated anymore when I have work to do and I feel confident instead of feeling like I’m the only kid who doesn’t get it. Doing Robo memo was hard but it was worth it. “
12 year-old boy
“From the time my son was in third grade we saw that things were more difficult for him than his two older brothers. He developed some pretty good coping mechanisms, but our house was the “crying over homework” every night household for a lot of years. When Dr. Rob mentioned Robo Memo to us it sounded like it was worth trying. Training my son every day wasn’t always easy, but I started seeing the effects before the training was completed. It wasn’t that he couldn’t master his work, it was the amount of time and level of frustration that was involved. Three weeks into the training my son came home and with an “A” on a math test. It was then that my husband and I realized that we hadn’t helped him with homework for over two weeks. We asked him if he was starting to see or feel differently because of the training and he said, ‘When I’m in class now, I just get it. When I take the test, I remember what the teacher said.” Maybe that isn’t very scientific, but it has become a constant in my son’s academic performance now. The days of crying over homework are gone, he is confident as a learner now and we couldn’t be happier about what it has done for his self-esteem. Is it magic? No. Does it feel like it sometimes? Yes. If your kid has working memory deficits, I strongly encourage you to try this. “Parent of a 12 year old boy
“Robo Memo really helped me focus a lot better in school and made me a lot more calm and glad. There is a big difference from before. It has changed my school life tons and kept me tons more focused. “
“The biggest difference is definitely the way I focus and I really like the change it gave me. That’s the thing I mostly liked about Robo Memo.”
13 year old boy
Dear Dr. Vande Steeg and Bonnie De Jong;
Our son has been working through an attention deficit problem and has had trouble focusing in class and staying on task. As his frustration grew so did ours and we had looked at other programs and tools to sharpen his short term memory. A teacher at my son’s school suggested we look into Cogmed and their Working Memory Training.
We made an appointment and met with Dr. Rob Vande Steeg and he tried the interactive RoboMemo computer program and was immediately interested. We signed up for the five-week program that is done on your home computer and as soon as school had ended for the summer break we started the daily sessions. We had a very supportive coach facilitator in Bonnie De Jong.
Our son actually looked forward to the RoboMemo sessions and was challenged to do the best he could and he stayed focused and on task. After completing RoboMemo we enrolled him in a summer reading program through the University of California Irvine and his reading teacher says that he is participating fully and doing well. We have seen much improvement in his attention span and he gets much less flustered when asked to do things like reading, etc.
The bottom line is our son has really benefited from the RoboMemo program and is much more engaged, focused, and confident and we find that a very encouraging thing.
Parent of a 9 year old boy
